Why didn't some of the guys use dedicated high jump kites? Wouldn't such an event good advertisement for e.g. the Naish Draft?

Oswald Smith was on a super high aspect ratio kite from Airush which I assume is their VXR race kite. He looked to be jumping the same heght as the other guys on C kites, but it did look like he was able to get back upwind faster to do more jumps in 10minutes.

The float times depended largely on the guys kiteskills more than the kite. If they guys did a mega loop or threw the kite low through the power zone, then their forward speed was too high and they did not get as much hang time. Most hangtime was from guys keeping the kite high, but doing lots of loops on the way down.

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so why didn't kevin win? had a bad round and bombed out?

Yes, I think he had a bad round. He was out on a 9m, boosted huge, and then came in during the heat to change kite to a 10m. I think he wanted to go too high and the 10m was so overpowered that he could not time his jumps anymore and did not boost so high or do any nice tricks for the rest of the heat? I was serious dissapointed not to see him go to the finals.

I measured the wind occasionally (although it could be slightly stronger out in the water in lceaner air) and the average was 20 knots in the opening rounds, building to average 27 knots in the later rounds and some stronger winds now and then with a max gust that I measured of 37 knots. One could see the guys battle a bit when the wind fell back to 22 knots for a few minutes after being about 30 knots for a good while.

But if it feels more powered, there could be other reasons, but I can not see why the density should be that different.

The air is mid day around 27C (80F) in the summer (now) and of course the density is lower if warmer, but I doubt that it would make that big an impact.As the water is colder, the air might be less than 27C, true, but even if the air is 15C warmer in other countries (around 40C maybe), the difference is only 4-5 % in density thus 4-5 % difference in power and lift too.

So if you are talking about this difference 3-5% max, you are right

I think it is mostly because it is windier out on the water in Capetown, as simple as that.Because it is fully sideshore, the wind is quite low over the land, but lots as soon as out in the break

Waveriding is typical with 4-8m2 kites every day in this area, and half the time the months we have been there, with 5-6m2 (for 80kg riders)

Occasionally on low wind days, you might be able to ride with a big 9m2 kite, in waves, but quite rare down there.

So air temperature can be felt, for sure - but IMO not a huge difference from CT to other countries...

Comparing winther (0C) to high summer (30C) is an easy difference to feel, as this is around10% in density difference, which means a 10m2 instead of an 11m2 has the same power.

But the difference sometimes feels a lot bigger than that, because (here) the wind is way more gusty and changing in the winther - and more steady in the summer.So we get the impression, that the wind is much "harder" so to speak

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